Trigger Happy : Videogames and the Entertainment Revolution
by Steven Poole
ISBN: 1559705396 Book review by Amazon.com reprinted with permission
Steven Poole's substantial examination of the world inside your console combines an exhaustive history of the games industry with a subtle look at what makes certain kinds of games more engaging than others. For example, what works in which genres--the RPG (role-playing game) versus the god game--and the relationship of video games to other forms of media.
A writer and composer, Poole makes the case that video games--like films and popular music--deserve serious critical treatment: "The inner life of video games--how they work--is bound up with the inner life of the player. And the player's response to a well-designed video game is in part the same sort of response he or she has to a film, or to a painting: it is an aesthetic one." Trigger Happy is packed with references not just to games and game history but also to writers and theorists who may never have played a video game in their lives, from Adorno and Benjamin to Plato. At times this approach verges on the pedantic, dwelling at length on points that will seem obvious to serious gamers ("We don't want absolutely real situations in video games. We can get that at home"; "The fighting game, like fighting itself, will always be popular"). Nonetheless, Poole's book may be favored bedside reading for both the keen gamer and the armchair philosopher looking to understand this cultural phenomenon. --Liz Bailey, Amazon.co.uk
LinkLeads.com - Advertise on other websites by exchanging links with similar
sites. Join our FREE worldwide search engine and boost your visitor traffic
today by receiving Link Leads.
The Simple Tetris High Score is Below. If you beat it then send us the new high score as follows:
1. Obtain a higher score
2. Hold down Alt and Print Screen at the same time
3. Open Wordpad and choose Edit - Paste
4. Save the Wordpad Doc as high_score.rtf and email it to us at webmaster@evidgames.com
Current High Score obtained by Tyson Tanaka